Posted By John Schoonejongen On August 30, 2012 @ 4:47 pm In Uncategorized | Comments Disabled

By RAJU CHEBIUM, Gannett Washington Bureau

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday urged South Carolina Republicans to redouble their efforts on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney so he could focus on winning the handful of tossup states that are key to the election.

Speaking to the Palmetto State’s delegation to the Republican National Convention, Christie drove home the message in his punchy and humorous style that the GOP can’t afford to take any state for granted – not even reliably “red” South Carolina.

“We need to make sure that we do our business so that here in South Carolina Gov. Romney doesn’t have to worry,” said Christie, who gave the convention’s keynote address on Tuesday.

Analysts consider Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, Iowa Virginia and Nevada to be “swing” states that could go for Romney or President Barack Obama. Both campaigns and their allies are campaigning and spending heavily in those states.

During a breakfast meeting at a golf resort where the South Carolina delegation is staying, Christie called them “states of consequence.”

“They’re going to determine this election and the course of our country,” he said. “And we here in South Carolina have to do the job that needs to be done so we don’t become a state of consequence.”

In 2008, GOP candidate John McCain won 53.9 percent of the vote in South Carolina, compared to 44.9 percent for then-candidate Barack Obama.

Christie’s home state, meanwhile, is rated solidly “blue,” or Democratic under the Cook report rating system. Obama carried the Garden State 57.3 percent to 41.7 percent in 2008.